The Worst Fires Of History

Fire is one of the most destructive forces of nature. It knows no limits when it is raging out of control and it mindlessly destroys almost anything in its path. Homes, people, businesses, forests, and wildlife are all at risk if they are any where near a fire that is raging out of control. As humans we always try to contain fires so that the damage they cause is kept to a bare minimum when possible, but throughout history there have been numerous fires that could not be controlled and destroyed entire cities.

One of the first famous cities that come to mind that were devastated by fire is Rome. In 64 AD Rome had four of its fourteen districts completely destroyed and several more were damaged. The fire was said to last from five to six days as people tried desperately to get it under control. The part of town it affected the most consisted of many wooden structures and the flames run rampant through them. This was during the reign of Nero and his palace was destroyed as well. No one knows the real reason the fire started, but there were rumors that it had something to do with a conspiracy to frame Christians for the incident.

In 1871 there was the famous fire that raged through the city of Chicago in Illinois. It burned for two destroyed approximately four square miles of the town. It was one of the biggest fires in the 19th century for the United States. Although the fire destroyed a large area, people began rebuilding almost immediately and the end result was that it spurred economic growth that led to make Chicago the great metropolis that it is today. The reason for the fire was thought to have been started by a lady named O'Leary, but this theory was later retracted and replaced with the one that it was started by a man named Sullivan who had hay to catch fire in his barn.

The great fire in San Francisco was in 1906 was originally started because of an earthquake that is thought to have been between a 7 and 8 magnitude. The earthquake itself did much damage, but the majority of destruction seems to have been caused by the fires that followed. The fires broke out in many areas of the town and many of these were from the broken gas lines that ignited. The fire burned for four days and it was hard to get it out because of broken water mains. This left few resources which could be used to combat the blazes.

Today we have better services available to us when these kinds of destructive fires take place, but it is still bound to mean a tremendous loss of life and property because sometimes the fire will burn much faster than it can be put out regardless of what measures are used to try and control them.

About the Author

Rachel Yoshida is a writer of many topics, visit some of her sites, like Water Damage Restoration and Houston Water Damage Restoration.

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